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"Keepin' It Eel" Producer, San Francisco www.unagi442.com Page 1 | 2 | 3 Lee: About your first release, when did you complete this project and how was it received? Unagi: The first album came out in fall of 2003. It was received well, got a lot of good reviews and not too many bad ones. My distribution on that wasn’t too crazy but it seemed like the people who did hear it liked it a lot. L: What challenges do you face as a producer that you think are different in regards to what it takes to market an instrumental album as supposed to an album with lyrics? U: Marketing an instrumental album is always tricky, even with all the beat-heads out there its still a way smaller demographic than a vocal release. When you think back, there have been very few instrumental “hits” outside of like the Ventures or Young-Holt or something. The third album is gonna have all guest emcees and singers on it though so hopefully more people will be checking for it. L: On your website it says that you cracked the top 10 in Hawaii. What was your response when you heard that? Have you touched down in Hawaii? U: I was psyched. I’ve been to Hawaii several times, its great. My family is originally from the big island and my brother lives in Waikiki so I try to get down there once a year or so. L: In what ways, as a producer are you able to perform the work that you create through an instrumental album, performance wise? U: I don’t really do any of my stuff live because I can’t play everything at once and I’m morally opposed to performing with a computer on stage. Hopefully in the future I will get a little combo together with some other musicians to bring my songs to life. L: What lyricist have you worked with? U: There’s a female emcee I’ve been working with out here named Only Child Jones who is very dope, we’ve got a few tracks in the bag but nothing 100% done yet. She will be on the next record though and if I can afford it I’m gonna do a whole project with her on 442 Records. L: Who are some of your favorite mc's out right now? U: Motion Man is my favorite rapper on the west coast, the guy is ridiculous and people are sleeping on him, he’ll be on the new joint as well. I like all the Monsta Island guys, hopefully we’ll be doing some tracks, Infinito 2017 out of Chicago, we worked on some stuff for an EP. Theres a lot of people I would like to work with, Cormega, Nate Dogg, Oktober, Camp Lo, Akinyele, the Wu, BG, all kinds of heads. L: Keepin’ It Eel is your sophomore release, were there any changes in ya mind set to the way you approached the creation of this album as suppose to the one before? U: The biggest complaint I got about the first one was that the songs were too short, so this time around I made em longer and a little more intricate. As much as I like the first album I think this one is a definite improvement. L: Who designed the cover for Keepin It Eel? U: That’s from my homie Aaron aka DJ Urban Yeti. He’s a dope artist and he hooked it up. The logo is inspired by Odyssey, which was the first big home video game system, built by Magnavox. Then Atari stole their technology and pretty much ran them out of business. L: You had a release party both in San Francisco and New York. What qualities do you feel distinguish and bring together San Francisco and New York? U: San Francisco is definitely mellower, less fast-paced and way smaller. The whole city is only 7 miles by 7 miles and well under a million people so things are just more laid back. The weather is usually pretty agreeable year-round. You can smoke weed in front of a cop and they’re not gonna trip. The flipside is theres a zillion bums, a lot of corny hippies, the rent is retarded, and you can’t get a good slice of pizza to save your life. NYC is crazy intense, but it’s arguably the center of the universe in a lot of ways. And the bars are open til 4. Both places have a lot going on all the time, and are definitely good spots if you’re a musician or artist or whatever. I’m lucky because I have a lot of friends and family in New York so I usually get to kick it out there twice a year. L: What was the response to Keepin It Eel across seas in Japan? How far has this album reached in terms of other countries around the globe? U: Good I think, I’m not really sure. I seen it available on some sites from Japan, Korea, and different places throughout Europe so hopefully cats are feeling it worldwide. Unagi's genius is in the way he puts together his collages…You could call Unagi instrumental hip-hop, or you could call it an old-school crate-digging mishmash, but when it comes down to it, these are great grooves for maxing and relaxing; each beat is perfect on its own, or a gold mine for an MC. – SF Guardian L: How do you feel about your work being tied to the old-school way of creating things and what is it that brings your sound into the contemporary? U: Well its old because I sample old records, and I also play everything live without sequencing or programming, and it’s new because I’m reconfiguring songs into something that might sound more modern I guess. L: What went through your mind after reading that press work from the SF Guardian? U: I thought it was a cool write up, pretty on point description. L: How did your involvement with 442 Music come about? U: 442 Records is a label I started when I got laid off from a job, got some severance pay and cashed in my 401K loot. It takes its name from the 442nd infantry which was the unit in WWII that had all the Japanese Americans, including my grandfather Shigeki Hayashi. They caught a lot of shit from other soldiers because they looked Japanese even though they were born here. The army sent them on all the real dangerous missions in Europe and a lot of them were killed, but they became the most highly decorated unit in the history of the American military. Not too many people know their story so I named the label after them (and use their patch as the logo) as a sign of respect.
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